Python Versions with Release Date And Features Added

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In this article, You will be looking at the Python versions with their release dates and features and modules added in the version. You will also look at how to check the version of Python you are using.

Python is a constantly evolving programming language.

In the early days, python was used mostly for development and testing. But now it is used for various purposes. like for web development, data science, machine learning, scientific computing, data analysis, data visualization, data cleaning, data integration, data manipulation, data processing, data science, data ETL.

python version

Use of Python is increasing day by day so it needs to be updated, to fulfill the needs of the day.

Python versions are updated with new features and modules. So it is important to know what version of Python you are using.

Let's now see various versions of python.

Python versions

Python has 2 major versions: Python 2 and Python 3. And within each version, there are various versions of Python. For example, Python 2.7 is the latest version of Python 2 and Python 3.9 is the latest version of Python 3.

Python 2 is now deprecated and it is suggested to use Python 3.

Python has lot of versions since it was first released in 1991. The list of versions is as follows.

Python versions
Version Release date Module Features
Python 3.10 July 28, 2021 Not yet
  • Structural Pattern Matching
  • Precise line numbers for debugging and other tools
  • Parenthesized context managers
  • Better error messages
  • more...
Python 3.9 October 05, 2020
  • zoneinfo
  • graphlib
  • union operators added to dict
  • Interpreter improvements
  • IANA Time Zone Database added
  • more...
Python 3.8 October 14, 2019
  • importlib.metadata
  • Assignment expressions: the walrus operator (:=)
  • New function parameter (/)
  • f-strings support
  • more...
Python 3.7 July 27, 2018
  • contextvars
  • dataclasses
  • importlib.resources
  • new built-in breakpoint() function
  • New C API for Thread-Local Storage
  • New Time Functions with Nanosecond Resolution
  • more...
Python 3.6 December 23, 2016
  • secrets
  • Formatted string literals
  • Underscores in Numeric Literals
  • Asynchronous Generators
  • more...
Python 3.5 September 13, 2015
  • typing
  • zipapp
  • percent formatting support for bytes and bytearray
  • Coroutines with async and await syntax
  • more...
Python 3.4 March 16, 2014
  • asyncio
  • ensurepip
  • enum
  • pathlib
  • selectors
  • statistics
  • tracemalloc
  • Explicit Bootstrapping of PIP
  • Newly Created File Descriptors Are Non-Inheritable
  • Improvements to Codec Handling
  • more...
Python 3.3 September 29, 2012
  • faulthandler
  • ipaddress
  • lzma
  • Virtual Environments
  • Implicit Namespace Packages
  • Python Launcher for Windows
  • more...
Python 3.2 February 20, 2011 Updated module:
  • email
  • csv
  • math
  • io
  • collections
  • socket
  • more...
  • Defining a Stable ABI
  • Dictionary Based Configuration for Logging
  • Python Web Server Gateway Interface
  • more...
Python 3.1 Junary 27, 2009 New and updated modules:
  • tkinter.ttk
  • decimal
  • intertools
  • logging
  • more...
Python 3.0 December 03, 2008 Old modules removed:
  • gopherlib
  • md5
  • bsddb3
  • etc
Some were renamed:
  • _winreg -> winreg
  • ConfigParser -> ConfigParser
  • copy_reg -> copyreg
  • Queue -> queue
  • repr -> reprlib
  • etc
  • print function was replaced by print()
  • long renamed to int
  • Many syntax changes
  • library changes
  • more...
Python 2.7 July 03, 2010
  • importlib
  • sysconfig
  • ttk
  • Adding an Ordered Dictionary to collections
  • Format Specifier for Thousands Separator
  • more...
Python 2.6 December 03, 2008 New and improved modules:
  • ast
  • json
  • future_builtins
  • plistlib
  • 'with' statement added
  • Advanced String Formatting
  • more...
Python 2.5 September 19, 2006
  • Added Conditional Expressions
  • Unified try/except/finally
  • Partial Function Application
  • more...
Python 2.4 November 30, 2004
  • introduced the sets module
  • Unifying Long Integers and Integers
  • new built-in function, reversed(seq)
  • more...
Python 2.3 July 29, 2003
  • A Standard Set Datatype
  • generators were added as an optional feature
  • Unicode file name support for Windows NT
  • more...
Python 2.2 December 21, 2001
  • Adding iterator interface
  • Generators as a new feature
  • possible to define static and class methods
  • more...
Python 2.1 April 17, 2001
  • Nested Scopes
  • Interactive Display Hook
  • Metadata in Python Packages
  • more...
Python 2.0 October 16, 2000
  • Added Augmented Assignment
  • new fundamental data type: Unicode strings
  • more...

Python latest version

Updated on

Python 3.9.0 is the latest stable released version of python. It was released on October 05, 2020.

Python 3.9.0 has many new features and improvements. The most important new features are listed below:

Python version check

Python version check is a simple way to check the current version of python.

You can check the current version of python in windows, mac, Linux, or in the python console itself.

Check Python Version Windows

You can check the current version of python in windows by using python -V, python --version, or by python -VV in the command line.

Steps to check the current version of python in windows:

  1. Open command prompt
  2. Type python -V or python --version or python -VV
  3. You will see the version of python in the command prompt.
python -V
python version windows 1
python --version
python version windows 3
python -VV
python version windows 2

You can also check the current version of python in windows by using python -c "import sys; print(sys.version)" in the command line.

python -c "import sys; print(sys.version)"
python version windows 4

Multiple versions of python:

If you have multiple versions of python in your system (both python2 and python3), then you can check the version of python3 by using python3 -V or python3 --version or python3 -VV in the command line.

python3 -V
python3 --version
python3 -VV

Another way to check the current version of python in windows system is by using python3 -c "import sys; print(sys.version)" in the command line.

python3 -c "import sys; print(sys.version)"

Here is a quick table to check the current version of python in all platforms:

Check python version
Platform Python 2 Python 3
Windows
  • python -V
  • python --version
  • python -VV
  • python -c "import sys; print(sys.version)"
Mac or Linux
  • python -V
  • python --version
  • python -VV
  • python -c "import sys; print(sys.version)"
  • python3 -V
  • python3 --version
  • python3 -VV
  • python3 -c "import sys; print(sys.version)"

Python version check in python console

You can check the current version of python in python console.

Steps to check the current version of python in python console:

  1. Open python console
  2. Type import sys
  3. Type print(sys.version)
  4. You will see the version of python in the python console.
import sys
print(sys.version)

Frequently asked questions

Here are some frequently asked questions about python versions.

  1. What is the difference between python2 and python3?

    Python2 is the old version of python, which is still used in many places. Python3 is the new version of python, which is used in most places.

  2. How to check the current version of python in python console?

    A: Type import sys in python console, then type print(sys.version).

  3. How to check the current version of python in windows command line?

    A: Type python -V for python2 or type python3 -V for python3 in windows command line.

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